If a visitor from the year 1917 traveled 100 years into the future, our world would look like something out of a science-fiction film. People attached to small screens they keep in their pockets. Planes soaring across continents. The president having “intimate” conversations with civilians through some invisible force field that connects us all, in 180 characters or less.
Science-fiction movies project the fantasies, fears, and hopes of the people onto an imagined future. The best sci-fi movies use interesting science-based phenomena to get at the heart of the human experience, and have fun along the way. They transcend the genre's tropes of alien invasions and overly intelligent robots, instead presenting us a new way to consider our future — and our present.
Don’t kid yourself: A lot of movies considered “sci fi” these days are just blockbusters with aliens or computers. Avoiding that trap, the movies on this list are the 21st century’s most imaginative explorations of the future.
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Never Let Me Go(2010)
Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield), and Ruth (Keira Knightley) have an enviably idyllic childhood in the English countryside. So idyllic, in fact, that you can’t help but think something’s amiss. When the friends' true destinies are gradually revealed, they must face their deep love for each other, as well as the haunting reality that will tear that love apart.
Her(2013)
In Her, a lonely writer falls in love with his artificially conscious computer operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. With Siris on every iPhone and Alexas in every living room, this dystopian reality is closer than it was in 2013, the year this movie was released.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind(2004)
Breakups would be easier to recover from if you could just scrub the entire relationship from your memory. But is erasure the wisest way to deal with heartache? Lovers Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) find themselves stuck in a cycle of falling in love and forgetting each other.
Avatar(2009)
With Earth falling apart, humans look to outer space for resources. In terms of plundering forests, there's no better option than the lush, verdant alien planet Pandora, inhabited by lanky blue creatures called the Na'vi. On a preliminary mission to Pandora, a group of Avatars — humans in Na'vi bodies — connect with the indigenous population. One such Avatar, Jake Sully, is drawn to the Na'vi people and joins in on the battle to spare Pandora from impending doom.
Ex Machina(2015)
Of all the promising young programmers in his firm, it’s Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who’s selected to participate in his company's mysterious experiment at CEO Nathan Bateman's (Oscar Isaac) mansion.
On a weekend in Nathan's extremely remote estate, Caleb is instructed to test the limits of a robot's consciousness. But neither Caleb nor Nathan could have predicted just how conscious the robot Ava (Alicia Vikander) is.
Children Of Men(2006)
It's the year 2027, and humanity's facing a collective problem: Women are no longer able to bear children. Two decades of infertility have led to the collapse of most nation states. Great Britain, the last remaining government, imposes harsh immigration laws to control the incoming mass of people.
But one of those refugees might be humanity's last hope. Clive Owen plays a bureaucrat who discovers a refugee's pregnancy, and must do everything possible to help her escape the chaos.
Sunshine(2004)
The sun is dying, and so will we. In a last-ditch attempt to save the planet from certain doom, a crew of astronauts heads into space with a device that could spark life back in the star. But deep into space, far from contact with Earth, their mission begins to unravel.
Snowpiercer(2013)
After the world is plunged into a second Ice Age following a failed climate-change-reversal experiment (come on, scientists!), the remaining population gathers aboard a train circumnavigating the globe by way of a perpetual-motion engine.
As with all capitalist allegories, the train’s divided into the "haves," who live in the front of the train, and the "have-nots," who are freezing in the back. One man (Chris Evans) incites a revolution for control of the engine, and a chance for a new social order.
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